Now another report - this one prepared by the city - is dealing with the Great Blackout of 2006.
This report is somewhat less harsh in its assessment of Consolidated Edison, the power company responsible for the grid which failed in Queens, although it still places blame on the company for failing to maintain an adequate system.

A senior Con Ed official met with the City Council to discuss its new preparedness plan and the talk was the of the usual “heads should have rolled” variety. The Council, despite the city report, continues to follow the assessment of the state regulators that the power company should have cut power to the grid entirely when they discovered it was failing, a move which could conceivably have given the grid a chance to recover. The company kept power in the grid, which eventually caused it to fail and, some say, led to a longer, more inconvenient blackout for the residents affected in Queens. Of course, Con Ed and the city report both suggest there is patently no way to know if cutting the grid would have done anything beyond inconvenience more customers.

Now, I realize probably no one - not even the councilmembers since they doubtless have aides who read reports for them and prepare summaries - read the report from last fall about this whole fiasco.
I did. I looked specifically at certain aspects of events leading up to the blackout, such as Con Edison pleading with the public to control power usage and cut down to essential use only while the heat was rising and the grid began to be taxed at record levels. Even after repeated urging, the grid broke record after record of usage until it the two main feeders for that area and their backups failed.
Now, I’m not one to dissect and blame. If a company is providing a service for which you are paying, they should reasonably be expected to provide that service under all circumstances. However, there were a lot of indications that something was about to happen. In fact, I had unplugged everything in my apartment when I was gone except for my refrigerator and only plugged appliances in when I needed to use them. One person doing this doesn’t affect the grid much but an entire neighborhood? Might have made a difference.
I’m very curious to know what residents of the affected area last year think. Should heads continue to roll? Would that be satisfactory in some way? Are there any steps the company and the city could take which would redeem them in your eyes? Also, at what point does our government share culpability? Should they share responsibility in a seemingly private industry?

More Coverage:
New York 1
ABC 7

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